My Story

I am a South African trained Psychologist and have worked in the field of psychology for the past fifteen years across a variety of settings and across the lifespan- from early childhood to late adulthood and have a passion for development across the lifespan.

​

I qualified as a primary intervention counsellor in 2005 and began working in Higher Education in South Africa. The role included increasing access to Higher Education for previously disadvantaged learners as well as ensuring academic and social success for students and successful throughput of students for the Institution. Through this role, I learnt that education has the power to change generational cycles of poverty and that if we focus on what makes people well, we can create environments that stimulate wellness rather than illness.

​

I qualified as a Counselling Psychologist ten years ago and since then I am grateful to have gathered experience in adult and child development, play therapy and developmental  and neuro-scholastic assessments.  I also have extensive experience in treating trauma, including single incident and chronic trauma, where relationships to self and other have been disrupted.

 

Each experience has brought rich and meaningful learning that I aim to bring into my practice. Each experience has helped me come to the conclusion that each of us need to feel connected to ourselves and the world around us in meaningful ways in order to thrive. In 2015 I founded The Centre for Play & Innovation with my best friend and colleague. This was one of the first multidisciplinary family practices in our city. In 2020, my partner and I made the decision to immigrate to New Zealand. Since then, I have gathered experience in Child & adolescent Mental Health statutory services and Youth Forensics. I moved exclusively into private practice in June of 2023. 

 

I believe that we are created to be in relationship! Relationship with ourselves, others and the world around us.  A connectedness that allows us to overcome hardship and adversity.  It is this unwavering belief in relationship and connectedness that has encouraged me to balance my time between motherhood and a focused psychology practice. 

​

I primarily use attachment based therapeutic frameworks to guide interactions with clients, and more specifically to repair situations where connection has been disrupted, but also have training in other modalities.

​

In a nutshell, I am humbled to bear witness to the courage of clients as they share and recover from their adversity, and am equally humbled and continue to learn from my own adversity. For I believe that it is in discomfort that we grow, and it is in relationship that we heal.